Rick Ostrander's Why College Matters To God

Improved Essays
According to Rick Ostrander in his book Why College Matters to God, “the purpose of a Christian college is not simply to hand [us] a complete Christian worldview on a platter; rather, it is to start [us]on the process of developing a comprehensive, coherent, yet dynamic Christian worldview” (28). In the introduction of this book, he explains how in the Christian overview, college can be described as a “grand drama in three main acts” (25). These three main acts are Creation, Fall, and Redemption and Consummation, as described in the bible.
To begin with, Ostrander defines Act 1, titled The Creation, as the act in which the all-powerful God created everything according to His own image. God gave His creation the capacity to delight in creation with Him, just like He delights in it. For example, this act has affected students, in their college work. God created us to be independent, as Ostrander mentions in His book; God has created us to produce and by focusing on our school work, we are fully expressing His image and how He is a God of work and not laziness. The second act, titled fall, explains how human beings were not perfect, and since we have a free will, we may use our freedom to disobey God; this act is suffered by all creation at some point.
…show more content…
I agree with the author of this quote, because I believe this type of education prepares a student on how to be a person and behave in different environments besides only having him or her gain specific knowledge in an area. Also, I believe a liberal arts education is more convenient because, nowadays, we need a different type of education besides the fundamentals of our career, since we are expected to be somewhat “culturally” educated. This type of education, in my opinion, better prepares college graduate to become more analytical in actual real-life situations than just their career core

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    In the article “The New Liberal Arts,” by Sanford J. Ungar he lists seven common misconceptions about liberal arts. The first misconception that Ungar states is that vocational training is a better substitute than liberal arts. He explains how students only focus on one thing now of days hoping they will get a job in that field, but don’t realize having more knowledge and experience will benefit them more. He also disputes that college graduates with a liberal arts degree will have a tougher time finding a job. Third misconception he says is that less prosperous people have no benefit form a liberal arts degree and should seek other fields of education.…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sanford Ungar argues the importance that a liberal arts degree holds today in America to those who are skeptic in his article, “The New Liberal Arts.” There are several points Ungar disproves. Ungar states that the job market was tough to crack into among all majors. Liberal arts have nothing to do with politics and can’t be related to democratic ideology according to Ungar. Several institutions that provide secondary education have liberal arts degrees which gives several opportunities for students to attain an education accessible to them.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A liberal arts education represents a quest for truth rather than an information download; it moves us toward the unknown every bit as much as the…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For the student should be interested and natural to the education that’ll be experienced for their degree, in this new portion of their life, college. Liberal education can mold the mentality, but as to Murray, it should be of a time before college to prepare an individual for what is to come. As Murray has stated, liberal education just doesn’t make sense to students whatsoever, mentally…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His argument could be further supported with more statistical evidence showing that he is not the only one who believes in this education, but many others have similar views and opinions, as well. I think this is an excellent representation of the truth about liberal-arts educations and how unfortunately, it is negatively received due to the misperceptions. While I would argue that everyone should pursue some sort of liberal-arts education because I believe it does make a student more well-rounded, self-aware, and educated to a different degree than career or technical-based schools, I think it is absolutely acceptable and understandable for each student to have their own path to their future – a student’s circumstances should not define or limit their education…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, people are abusing the fact of college to get the base of a liberal education. He gives some very important points in the article about college and how it helps students achieve their goals in life. Some of the points are how B.A.’s help you get a good job, to support you, and how college is meant to help to achieve a higher education, and reach a higher place in society. The most important point is using your core knowledge towards making a better life for yourself, your future, and your family. Bettering your core knowledge has its pros and cons, but you should put that knowledge towards something that will benefit you and your future.…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Yoni Applebam’s essay titled “A Liberal Arts Education for Business Majors” was published in The Atlantic on June 28th, 2016.This article is about why business majors should consider getting educated in liberal arts. To summarize the article, it mainly talked about how business majors are too focused on their business degrees, when they should be focusing on liberal arts, too. The reason for this is while people can still get jobs in their field, more and more businesses and companies are looking for people who also have a degree in liberal arts, as well as what their actual job requires them to have. They find liberal arts majors more innovative. Applebaum also states that they want someone with “an education that allows them to grow, adapt,…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Liberal Education is meant to cultivate students, which means it intends to help with personal growth, knowledge, skills and also gives them the opportunity to learn about a variety of subjects including a specific field of their choice. This sounds very much like the purpose of college and lower level educations. David Brooks, who wrote “The Organization Kid” explains his views on liberal education and its effects on students. Brooks argues that these students are extremely intellectual, very respectful and motivated but that their educational upbringing and expectations put on them have left them as nothing more than programmed robots that take orders and have no character. This becomes evident in his interviews with students from Princeton…

    • 1679 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Before I entered college, I never asked myself why I wanted to go on to higher education. I just assumed it was normal to go on to postsecondary education, just like my older brothers and my parents did. Not even once did my high school councilors talk to my class about alternative education, it was always college, college, college, from day one. So in turn, I never pondered the questions; where am I going?, why am I doing this?,or, what is the purpose of all this? As Alina Tugend, New York Times journalist, writes in her article “Vocation or Exploration: Pondering the Purpose of College,” she asks the question, what is the purpose of college education.…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Worldviews shape not just our individual lives, but universities as well.” (Why College Matters To God, 20) I believe that the main way that we should live in the world is through listening to and being able to talk to people openly about differences in beliefs and social differences. If one strives to be conscious of and learn from other points of views and experiences, one can be enlightened and educated in things that they might have missed otherwise.…

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. What does the word “Christian” mean in the university’s name-Colorado Christian University? To answer what the word “Christian” means in the university’s name-Colorado Christian University, I want to first explain what the word “Christian” means to me.…

    • 110 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “Only Connect…”, William Cronon writes about the qualities gained through a liberal arts education. Cronon (1998) believed, that best type of education, is based off “nurturing human talents to expand the amount of freedom”, experienced in a society (p. 1). Even though not many people really understand how a liberal arts education work, it instills values that make effective leaders. Liberal education has changed quite a lot throughout history. This education was once solely for aristocrat males that focus on bettering themselves, to separate themselves from the population.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cognition is something that must be owned by anyone who has a goal of finding a place in today’s job market. This is because the ability to process and acquire information through thought experience and sense is crucial in ones working environment. In Sanford J Ungar’s essay “The New Liberal Arts” he believes that obtaining a college education focused on liberal arts is the best way that the workers of tomorrow will be prepared for the constantly changing job market that they will soon have to explore in the future. Because of Ungar’s argument one may ask the question, is a liberal arts degree the only way to obtain the skills needed in the workplace? While some may jump to answer yes to this question others may have something else in mind.…

    • 1428 Words
    • Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his arguments, Ungar points out that while many believe a “liberal-arts degree is a luxury,” it is not (227). It may indeed be true that pursuing such a degree is more expensive and that families are struggling financially, but Ungar argues that it “a better investment” as it teaches the students how to communicate in an effective way and how to be critical thinkers which allows for them to be “innovative and creative” (227-228). He then supports this by making a claim based off a survey in 2009 that the majority of the employers are indeed looking for those with a liberal arts education instead due to them possessing the abilities already mentioned. Another argument he makes is that one should not just focus on the STEM fields and that one should expand and diversify their learning, which is what a liberal arts education can provide (229). While Ungar admits that while it is possible to gain such an education through a larger university, it does not provide “a close interaction between faculty members and students” and that there isn’t a “sens of community” (232).…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Every person who enrolls in college has an important decision to make: what are they going to major in? Choosing what discipline to major in, for the most part, sets the person up for what they’re going to be doing upon completing their degree, what career they’re going to be entering into, and more importantly how the aforementioned career will contribute to society as a whole. This last piece is important because we should all strive to be better citizens and more productive members of society as to improve society as a whole for each and every one of us. Nicholaos Jones, a philosophy professor from the University of Alabama in Hunstville, argues in “Liberal Arts, and the Advantages of Being Useless" that the best way to make people better…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays